As many times as I ran up and down them you’d think I would remember exactly how many steps there was to our “upstairs” in the old 2 story house I grew up in. It was the same house Gam was born in. Its been gone since the late 80’s I think but in my mind I can walk right in the back door and be standing in the utility room. We only had a washer and we hung our laundry on the line. In that utility room was a very dark closet where some of our outdoor stuff was stored, and my dads hip boots he wore for hunting. A door with glass window panes from the utility room placed you in the kitchen which is surely larger in my mind now than it really was. The sink under a window faced Julies house and a cherry tree was in between our 2 houses. From the kitchen you walked into the living room or if you took a right you entered my Dad & Dots room that had another door that opened to the living room making it a circle. The one bathroom was just off the living room with a stand up shower only, no tub. The front door of that house entered into the living room, you could go left and go in my dads room, go right and be in the living room or go straight up the stairs. My bedroom was at the top of those stairs and I had green carpet and yellow wallpaper with tiny yellow flowers and a twin bed with a yellow bed set and curtains that matched. The back wall of that whole room was a double entrance closet that had been wall papered over long before my time, but I was always afraid of what might be in that closet and all sealed up. My dad told me that room was one of Gams brothers room, “Uncle Tom” and he played a banjo and I worried he’d left his banjo in there. I had a wardrobe where I hung my clothes and a dresser and a desk to do my homework and write in my diary. I had a subscription to “16 Magazine” at some point and a whole collection of records and albums and my own record player. Their were 2 more bedrooms upstairs, one my brothers shared and one we called the “back room” for storing things. I always secretly wanted the “back room” as my bedroom instead because regardless the name, it was on the front of the house. Then there was a little hallway up there that ended in another staircase that led to the attic. Finally, a screened front porch that we played on and waited for the bus on when it was raining.

This is Baby Gam with the house behind her, a very long time ago.